Australians for Constitutional Monarchy

This was the front page headline on 29 August, 2010 on The Sun Herald, the major Fairfax Sunday newspaper.  It was a report on an exclusive Sun Herald/Nielson poll on removing the Crown from our constitutional system, This confirmed that the support for this proposed change has fallen to a 16 year low.

This is in line with other polls, which where they have measured it, have also indicated something which will worry those republicans who think they need only wait until the present generation of monarchists go to the other world. This is the massive decline in support among the young.

There was one exception to this trend, a rogue poll which the republicans revealed on the tenth anniversary of the referendum. The point about polls surely is that it is the trend which is useful, not one poll which suspiciously goes against the trend.

The poll was conducted two weeks before the federal election. It shows that more Australians are now in favour of retaining the monarchy than in favour of an undefined politicians' republic. This poll is entirely consistant with the long term trend from the 1999 referendum.

[ Support for republic collapsing ]

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I would disagree. Imagine the utility of a poll today asking people how they will vote in an election around say, 2025. The poll would not tell us much. Similarly, a poll about how people would vote at the end of the reign cannot seriously be used as an indication of what will happen then.   

The mood at the end of this reign will be one of sadness and appreciation. There will be a massive world wide retrospective assessment of the reign. Then there will be excitement across thw world over the Coronation, the sovereign and probably the next Prince of Wales. 

Such is the magic of monarchy.

[ The succession assured ]

The Sun Herald reported the views of ACM as well as the republican movement.